


And I Feel Fine

by firefright



Series: 100 Prompts [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Fallen Angels, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Porn with Feelings, Pre-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 19:51:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6871090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the end of the world a distinct possibility, the angel Richard Grayson comes to visit Earth for what may be the last time. However he isn't expecting to find Jason, a Fallen-angel become demon, waiting there for him. In the past such encounters between them have always ended in a fight, but to Dick's surprise this time Jason approaches him with a rather different intention in mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Feel Fine

**Author's Note:**

> Hey friends. Slightly late update, this past week has been a mess of toothaches, colds, and friend obligations, but I still survived to write.
> 
> I've taken up the [100 Prompts](http://firefrightfic.tumblr.com/promptschallenge) challenge on tumblr, and this story is the first to be inspired by those. Prompt number 2 is "Wings", and since I just started rereading 'Good Omens' recently some obvious inspiration struck (even if this ended up being not much like the novel).
> 
> Warnings for strongly fictionalised depictions of religion/religious beings, sex with mildly dubious consent at the beginning, and the possible end of the world. 
> 
> Title taken from R.E.M's 'End of the World'.

The church is old, crumbling. Abandoned decades before this day.

Heavy layers of dust scatter as Dick materialises within its borders and casts his gaze upwards through the partially collapsed roof, the evening stars are beginning to light the sky overhead, signalling the beginning of night time, _his_ time.

There are many different kinds of angels in Heaven, tied to the day and to the night, and Dick is of the latter choir; his power and song speaks strongest when the moon dominates the sky. Feeling the warm tug of the moon overhead, Dick stretches he spreads his blue-and-black banded wings one final time before drawing them close to his body, burying them in a familiar disguise of humanity until not a single feather remains.

From Richard, guardian angel, to Dick Grayson, mortal man. The change takes only a moment.

"Here I was thinking you weren't going to show."

Dick starts, his arms dropping down out of the air in shock as he whirls around from the altar. The fabric of the dark blue shirt he'd conjured to cover himself with tugs stiffly against his golden skin as he comes to face the one and only member of the congregation in the broken pews before him. It's with embarrassment that he realises his arrival was witnessed. A fact only made worse when he recognises the man before him.

"Jason." He manages, eyes wide. "What the... how are you..."

"In here?" Jason asks, wrapped in spell of humanity of his own making. He looks blasphemously comfortable amid the ruins, black leather jacket strung tight across his broad shoulders; if evil had a fabric choice, it was certainly leather. Adding insult to injury, he rests his booted feet atop the pew in front of him. "Aw, Dickie bird. Don't look so surprised, this place has been out of use for years. And Faith only lasts so long without the faithful to support it."

Dick swallows. He stretches out with his aura, searching for the power that should still be in the stones. It's been over a century since the church was new, raised on the foundations of an older wooden building, back when Gotham was but a small town in the founding , and decades since it fell out of use and crumbled into ruin without mortal hands to care for it. Apparently long enough ago that the power that would have once kept Jason outside its borders had finally crumpled.

"You shouldn't be in here." He says, fingers tightening into fists as he curses himself for having used this place as an apparition point for so long that Jason had caught onto the habit.

"Shouldn't, but am." Jason drawls, still lounging as if he doesn't have a care in the world. "You can't claim this space as your private clubhouse anymore, Dick. Not that it's going to matter for much longer though, right?"

"You don't know that." 

Jason snorts, pulling his legs off the pews, and Dick hates himself for how closely he watches the graceful way he stands and stalks out of the rows, climbing over fallen masonry to stand in the aisle between Dick and the archway leading outside. "The fate of the world rests on the whims of an eleven year old boy. A little shit of an eleven year old boy, by the way. I'm pretty sure there's only one way it can end."

"I don't believe that, Damian is -"

"What, a good kid?" Jason slides his hands into the pockets of his sinfully tight jeans. Emphasis on 'sinful'. Dick swallows at the sight, feelings he's suppressed for centuries threatening to rear their heads again. "Because you and Bruce got your chance with him the past couple of years? Our side had him first, Dick, and lemme tell you, in that custody battle Talia has no intention of coming out the loser."

Dick bristles, shoulders itching with the urge to unleash his wings again and throw the demon out of the chapel by force. "You'd know, wouldn't you? Did she send you here?"

Jason lets out a bark of laughter, the sound familiar enough to make Dick's heart ache. "Hardly. I haven't done what she's told me since the sixteenth century. I'm my own man now, _Dick_. My own demon, anyway."

Through the collapsed roof, the light of the moon filters in amidst the stone, striking Jason in a way that makes the white streak in his hair gleam. It reminds Dick that things weren't always this way, they didn't always stand on opposite sides of the great divide between good and evil. Jason was once an angel too, his brother, before he fell.

"Little wing." he says in some hope of reminding him of that, the irony of the nickname not passing him by.

Jason's expression immediately darkens. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that. I haven't had wings in a long time. Not since your side burnt them off, remember?"

"I remember." Dick swallows, "Of course I remember, but Jason -"

"This world's about to end, Dick. You wanna spend it's last hours giving me another lecture? Trying to appeal to the good in me?" Jason starts to stalk forwards up the aisle, every motion of his body screaming _threat_ Dick's way. "Because y'know," He cracks a crooked, vicious smirk, "I'm certain I can think of better ways to pass the time."

"Why are you here?" Dick shifts his feet apart, ready to call up the divine lightning at his core at a moments notice. Jason's eyes start to burn green with suppressed hellfire as soon as he catches the motion; the demon Talia Al-Ghul's gift to him when he crashed down onto Earth. "To get in my way, to ensure the end of the world? Do you really hate me so much that you want to make me watch as -"

Jason snarls as he reaches the edge of the dais on which Dick and the altar stand. "For God's sake," the blasphemy so close to the centre of worship makes Dick's hands twitch. "You are such a fucking idiot. You have to know you can't interfere with what's happening now. The decisions already out of our hands, it doesn't matter what you and I want or do. The kid's going to choose one way or the other, for better or worse."

"He'll make the right choice, I know he will."

"Most kids his age can't decide what transformers toy they want, so somehow I doubt that. Not that I care." Jason replies impatiently, raising one foot and placing it on the low step. They're close enough now for the air to crackle between them with energy. "You're still missing the point."

"Then why don't you stop being vague and just tell me what it is, Jason?" Dick growls. "Before I lose my patience."

"Patience is a virtue, angel." His brother mocks him, before stopping where he stands. He licks his lips before speaking, "How long have we been doing this, Dick?"

The question throws him off, coming out of left field as it does. "Centuries." Dick answers, "Ever since -"

"Ever since they cast me out for doing the right thing."

"You sent a repentant man to Hell, Jason. That's not -"

"Fuck his repentance. After what he did he deserved it, no matter how sorry he was." Jason says impatiently, waving Dick's words away as his eyes burn greener under the sweeping curves of his eyelashes. "I punish sinners the way they should be punished, and I'm damn good at it. But the point is, we've been doing this a fucking long time. We meet, we fight. You kick my ass, I kick yours. Over and over."

Jason isn't wrong. That's been their story for longer than Dick cares to count. Sometimes alone, sometimes as part of a larger battle, Jason always seemed to have a knack for putting himself in Dick's way; that's if he wasn't putting himself in Bruce's. More than once Dick's considered that it was as if he was targeting him specifically.

"What does that have to do with anything? What are you getting at, Jason?"

"I'm tired of it, Dick." Jason cuts him off again, finally stepping up onto the dais proper. Now that they're on the same level he stands taller than Dick by a couple of inches, spurring Dick to remember how he felt the first time he saw Jason on Earth, about thinking how it was like the missing weight of his wings had finally allowed him to spring upwards in height. No more funny curly haired little brother, now instead there was this _man_ , this demon with burning eyes and a devilish smirk. "Figure if the world's going to end then we might as well bring our dance to its conclusion too."

It's an oxymoron to say that evil has done someone _good_ , but in Jason's case Dick can believe it. He was never so self-assured and confident back when he was an angel.

"Don't you think I feel the same way? I don't want to fight you again, Jason. Especially not tonight."

Jason cocks his head, the smirk still lingering over his lips. "Missing the point again, Dick. Who said anything about fighting?"

Electricity crackles in Dick's hand as Jason lunges forwards, but he's too slow as the demon crashes into him and shoves his back hard into the altar. The stone edge cuts into Dick's spine as he tries to unleash his power, only to have his hands caught and twisted to his sides as Jason presses forwards. There's no warning at all that Dick can understand before Jason's mouth crashes down on his own, startling a whine out of his throat.

The cupped power sparks off somewhere to his right, splitting stone by the sound of it, but all Dick can focus on is molten hot lips against his own, strong hands holding his wrists bruisingly tight, and a firm powerful body caging him in against the altar. He tries to say something, protest, but Jason only pushes harder, bending Dick backwards at a near spine-snapping angle before he whimpers and parts his lips to let him in.

It feels like he's being burned from the inside out as Jason kisses him, hips and legs pressed together. Something falls and shatters from the altar, an old cobweb-filled cup left behind when the humans cleared the place out. Dick barely notices it, writhing in Jason's hold until he pulls back, static filling the air around them and setting the hair on his arms standing on end.

"Jay..." he gasps, winded. "Jay what was - I... why did you -"

"Something I've wanted to do for a long time, Dick." Jason replies, voice throaty and deep. His glamour is slipping as his eyes brighten, glowing in the gloom. The tips of his canines look sharper than before as he flashes Dick a smile before kissing him again.

The angel twists, trying to buck him off, at the same time as his body aches to pull Jason closer. "Jason, we can't." He tries to protest, as soon as he has chance again. "Jason, this is -"

"Say wrong, and I swear I'll bust your ass for it." Jason growls, as he ducks his head down, still holding Dick in place with his hands and weight as his mouth attacks the column of his throat. His teeth are definitely sharp, dangerous and hungry, as he seizes sections of Dick's neck in his jaws, sucking and worrying until blood vessels burst and bruises form, but doesn't actually break the skin. 

He could so easily, could rip Dick's throat out and let him bleed. For some unholy reason, Dick moans at the thought.

"A... a church. This is a church." Sweat breaks out across his skin as he stares up at the remnants of stained glass windows, the heavy moon hanging overhead; the sigil they were both born under. "Jay, stop..."

"There's no power left here. The fact I'm inside proves that." Jason rasps, "And anyway, it won't matter soon enough."

He rolls his hips forwards, pushing his legs between Dick's and grinding their crotches together. Dick moans at the very fast and real reaction that spears from his cock to his brain, arousal kicking any more pious thought out the window. Some humans made the mistake of thinking angels were sexless, something that was nowhere near true. Mortal forms came with mortal desires, this being one of them.

"Ah!" he gasps as Jason's teeth sink into a particular sensitive spot low on his throat, tongue swiping over the bite a moment later.

"Wanted this for years, maybe since before I fell." Jason's hand slides under his shirt, "Not that I knew that was what it was then, took me centuries to figure it out. Then I held back, because for some reason I care enough to give a shit about what those sanctimonious assholes above would do to you if they ever found out..." 

Dick swallows at the calloused palm sliding up his stomach. "Jason... please." He tries to pull his arms free again. "I..."

"Waited for some clue you felt the same way." Jason pulls back, pupils no longer rounded but slitted like a serpents in the poisonous green of his eyes. "Now I've got no more time to wait." His fingers let go of Dick's wrists, but he stays pressed against him. A solid, burning presence. "So here's the question, Dick. You gonna use all that divine wrath inside you to stop me, or am I actually on to something here?"

The confession takes Dick's breath away, though it's not his usual forte. His thoughts are a jumble of tangled threads inside him, memories of Jason small and laughing beside him mixed with various recollections of the older demon he'd grown into as their eyes met over crossed weapons throughout the centuries. They're ordained enemies, they can't... he can't... 

(That fact didn't stop Bruce, he thinks with old resentment; Antichrist's didn't just grow on trees. And Talia Al-Ghul was a born demon, not just a Fallen.)

Dick's fingers lift up and brush across the stubbled line of Jason's jaw, tracing up and over his lips. The desire he's suppressed for so long in shameful silence rearing its head again. "This is wrong."

"I'm a demon, of course it's wrong." Jason kisses his hand despite his earlier threat of what would happen if Dick used that word, teeth nipping at the tips of his fingers. "Come on, Dick. Tell me the truth, and remember, lying is a _sin_."

Temptation, that most awful of things, tugs at Dick's soul as Jason watches him with the slow easy patience of a stalking snake. Temptation he should be strong enough to resist, especially knowing that Bruce will kill him for going ahead with it even if the world still exists tomorrow, but this... this is _Jason_ , seemingly finally within his reach after all this time. Despite himself, Dick can't help but see a chance to find again the fledgling boy he used to know in the creature before him.

There's never been a record of a demon ascending back up after they fell, but Dick is a being of hope. He has to be. In all the years they've been fighting he's never given up on the chance of bringing Jason home.

"Not here." Dick's finds himself saying against his better nature, still conscious of their location. 

"No." Jason says at once, hauling Dick up from the floor and against him, hunger blazing in his eyes at the tacit permission. " _Here_." Dick is kissed hard as he's dropped down on top of the altar; what holy relics remain on the stone surface are soon swept aside by Jason's hand. The sudden relief of pressure against his back has Dick sighing in relief, seconds before his shirt is ripped open by eager hands.

"Jay!" Dick squawks as he does it, to the accompaniment of Jason's huffing laughter against his throat as he bends down to kiss his neck again. His abused skin stings at the fresh application of sharp teeth. 

"It's just a shirt, Dickie bird. You can materialise a million more just like 'em when we're through." Jason shucks off his jacket from his shoulders and drops it to the side, seconds before his hands trace searing paths up over Dick's ribs to his already erect nipples. "Damn, look at you."

It's not Dick's first rodeo, but still his cheeks bloom red at the compliment. Maybe because it's Jason, or maybe because it's been a long time since anyone talked to him that way. Sex angels may have from time to time, however, as a rule, they tended to be more conservative about it than their lower cousins were.

As a rule. Koriand'r from the Dawn Choir was a star all her own making.

His thoughts are abruptly derailed as Jason bites him again, lower down this time on his collarbone, growling as if he senses Dick's thoughts are idling in a direction away from him and he can't bear to lose his attention. Dick yelps at the teeth pressing through the thin layer of skin to the bone, right hand grasping and catching in Jason's hair. "Little wing," he hisses back.

He pulls hard enough that it has to hurt, and is startled when Jason's only reaction is to let out a rumbling moan, eyes rolling back up under his eyelids for a moment in what can only be ecstasy. "Don't..." Jason grunts as soon as he can, "Don't call me that."

Their mouths crash back together again as Jason snaps open the fastenings to Dick's jeans, slipping one hand under his back and lifting his hips the scant inches necessary to pull them down. Dick's bones feel like they're melting inside him at the sweep of Jason's tongue across his skin. The air surrounding them is filling with a heavy cloud of their contrasting energies.

He has no control here, he realises, shuddering as his whole body is exposed to the cool night air, his hand slips from Jason's hair as his shoes and socks are hauled off his feet by knowledgeable hands. Dick closes his eyes against the accusing moonlight, "Jason..."

"Don't worry, angel. I'm going to take care of you."

The sound of Jason's knees hitting the floor rouses him, encouraging Dick to raise himself up his elbows. He's struck by the sight of Jason kneeling on the ground between his legs, before the altar like a Sunday worshipper about to make obeisance to the Holy Choirs above them. Something about Dick's own position on top of the stone feels almost sacrificial in nature; an offering to an unholy power.

 _Fuck_. He's pretty sure none of Jason's powers corrupted over to the sexual when he fell - certainly he's not an incubus - but now Dick feels like he should reconsider that assessment.

"Lost for words, Grayson?" Jason says mockingly when he catches him staring. His tongue slides out between his lips to lick a stripe up the length of Dick's cock. "Nothing in your little golden book of rules about this, is there?"

Dick grits his teeth. "Jason -" but his next words are lost as a heavy hand grasps his cock, holding it steady for a waiting mouth to slide down over it. Hot liquid heat akin to the green fires Jason uses to fight with engulf him, searing his nerves as his mouth opens in a wordless yell. Dick goes to cast his arm across his eyes, but suddenly can't.

When he looks at his wrists, he see's green energy now encases them in bindings, holding him to the altar. _Crap_ Dick thinks dizzily, _When did that happen?_ but with Jason's mouth currently working over him that's about as far as his thoughts are willing to go. Everything else is disorientating sensation, overpowering him in the most sinful of ways. "Jay!" He gasps, begs, as Jason's tongue rasps over the slit in the tip of his cock. "Jason, please!"

Hands haul his thighs further apart, leaving his cock entirely to the mercy of Jason's mouth. One disappears from Dick's senses entirely for a moment, only to slide back a second later, now slick and wet. He realises what Jason's about to do only a second before he does it, at which point he's already coming inside his mouth, sobbing with desperate want that lets Jason slide that first finger inside him with ease.

Dick twists, gasping at the feeling, even as the power of his orgasm turns his limbs to jelly. Jason laughs as he stands back up, licking his lips clean of sticky white fluid and smirking down at Dick as he thrusts his finger in and out of him. "You taste even better than I thought you would." He purrs, "And believe me, Dickie, I've thought about it a _lot_."

"Jay...Jay, Jason. Remove these." Dick tries to reason, attempting to tug his arms free again. Maybe with a concentrated summoning of power he could break them himself if Jason won't. " _Please_."

"But Dick, you look so good like that." Jason smirks down at him, leaning forwards to kiss his lips again as he presses another finger inside him. Dick swallows thickly when he tastes his own come in Jason's mouth. "All laid out like a banquet ready for me to eat."

"No, I... damn it, Jay!" He curses, fighting the hold. "I want... I want to touch you too. Don't, c'mon." The world could end tomorrow, and without Earth as a middle ground where then could they meet? This could be Dick's only chance to make a difference.

He must startle Jason, because glowing eyes widen and his mouth parts, seconds before his tongue darts out. "Dick..."

"This might be the last night on Earth, Jason." Dick presses forwards, swallowing as Jason's fingers still. "You said it yourself. So let me. I need to -"

"Such a turnaround on that faith you had in the kid earlier." Jason mumbles, ducking his head in a way that always meant he was embarrassed when he was younger, a fresh faced fledgling right out of the Night Rookery, always trying to hide behind Bruce's wing. Dick's heart aches for a moment at the memory, seconds before Jason crooks both of the fingers he has inside him, dashing it away as Dick moans again. For a moment he thinks Jason's not going to give in to his request, but then as he arches the bonds disappear, allowing Dick to haul himself upwards by Jason's shoulders so that he can kiss him once more of his own volition; softer maybe, but no less desperate than the fiery kisses Jason gave him earlier.

It's effective, as Jason moans at the kiss alone. His slick fingers keep working Dick open as their mouths collide, tongues sliding together. 

"Off," Dick mutters in the brief moments between them, shuddering as a third finger presses into him. He tugs at Jason's shirt insistently, "Get it off."

"You have hands." Jason teases him, before snorting as Dick levels him with a glare. "Okay, fine. You're such a princess." 

He shrugs his shoulders, the shirt disappearing with a touch of thought. Ignoring the insult, Dick immediately moves his hands in exploration, searching out the unfamiliar planes of Jason's adult form. "You got so _big_ , Jason."

"All those souls I devour for breakfast," Jason snickers, nipping at Dick's lips. "They help me grow."

"Don't even tease about that." It's an obvious joke, but one that's in very poor taste as far as Dick's concerned. He smiles as Jason reacts to the paths of his fingers, powerful muscles twitching under his hands, but then his fingers reach the backs of Jason's shoulders, where smooth skin gives way to twin pockets of mottled scar tissue.

They both freeze at the same moment, Jason's fingers stilling as their lips jump apart. Dick swallows hard before he can move his fingers further across the only physical evidence left on Jason's body of where his wings used to be.

"Jay..."

"It's okay." Jason mumbles after a moment, "It doesn't hurt."

"I didn't know they... I mean, I knew it happened, but the scars..."

Jason shakes his head, fingers sliding out of Dick abruptly. "They have to leave a reminder, lest you forget your sin." He grimaces, "As if any of us Fallen can ever forget."

Dick smiles sadly, remembering the soft greys of Jason's wings, which tapered into a deep reddish brown at the ends of his flight feathers. They'd been almost too big for him as a fledgling boy, long and awkward, with feathers always knocked out of place because he never stayed still to tidy them. He strokes across the burned skin, even as Jason swallows. "Can you feel that?"

"No." His brother answers shortly, before pushing Dick back down against the altar. His eyes burn less brightly as he undoes his trousers and tugs Dick's legs around his hips. "I don't feel anything there anymore."

"Jay," He gasps, inhaling sharply. The seconds of warning aren't quite enough for him to relax himself completely before Jason's pressing in. The almost foreign sensation makes Dick's back arch, his shoulder blades itching once again with the urge to free his wings in a way that's almost sickening as his fingers touch the scarred remnants of Jason's own. " _Little wing_." 

Fire is settling into the core of him, Jason burning him from the inside out even as Dick's power makes the air crackle around them with a thousand tiny bolts of lightning. Any piece of metal left in the chapel sparks with it.

"Fuck..." Jason digs the nails of one hand into Dick's hip, the other into his shoulder. "You're..." he laughs breathlessly, moodiness forgotten as he shakes his head in wonder at being inside Dick, "You feel amazing. So pretty and pure."

Dick swallows hard in response, moving one hand up away from knotted scar tissue finally, weaving it back into Jason's hair, which is crackling under the static electricity his own body is giving off. The loose curls of it coil tighter against his fingers. " _Move_." He manages to demand, the other hand grasping Jason's forearm, holding tight above the hand that sits on his shoulder. "Move now."

"Anything you want, angel." Jason growls, for once not using the title mockingly as he kisses him again, hard and deep until Dick's very lungs feel scorched and tears sting the corners of his eyes.

The ruins of the church echo with the sounds of their straining bodies, their gasps and moans. As Jason finds the right angle Dick's voice rises upwards, singing an unfamiliar hymn into the eaves where now only mice and starlings nest. He holds on tight to Jason's shoulders, biting back a scream as the hand on his hip moves to grasp his cock again, working to wring another orgasm out of him.

"Tell me how good it feels, Dick." Jason orders, eyes alight in the moonlight as he fucks into him harder. "Tell me how much you want me."

"I... oh... I..." Dick struggles, nails cutting sharp red crescent in Jason's skin. "Good, it feels... I want..."

" _Say it_." Jason demands hungrily, the fire rising, leaking out of his eyes in green wisps of energy.

Dick's teeth sink into his lips, before he unthinkingly opens his mouth to do as he's told, just not in the way Jason expects. "I... want you, Jay. Love you." He says hoarsely, watching the man above him start, losing his rhythm for a moment. "Always have, always will."

"You son of a bitch." Jason whispers back, before snapping his hips forwards, acting as if Dick's words are a curse instead of the complete opposite. "God damn, angelic, asshole..." His head falls down, words failing him any further, until finally his hand tightens around Dick's cock, pumping it harder in time with his thrusts.

"Now, angel." he growls out. "Come on."

With a twisted yell Dick does as ordered, not thinking about what it means to obey Jason further in these circumstances. His spine twists, bends; he can't hold it in anymore as his wings burst out from his back, blue sheened feathers scattering around the chapel as Jason snarls and bucks into him one final time, loosing heat inside Dick's body and adding a discordant note to the song already in the air.

The sound rises, echoes, then finally falls away, leaving them in a well of silence. It feels like the very Earth has come to a standstill around them, but that's too self-indulgent a thought to be true. There's hours left till midnight yet. 

Then the world ends, or dawns into a new era.

Eventually Jason shivers under his touch, leading into an uncomfortable awkwardness as they pull apart from each other. Jason slides down to sit near the foot of the altar and Dick follows him, ignoring the stiff beginnings of soreness between his thighs as he curls close to the demon's larger form.

As he watches Jason reaches out, lifting one of his fallen feathers from the floor and threading it between his fingers. The expression on his face is one of poorly concealed longing.

"Jay..." Dick reaches for his other hand, clasping it between his own. Jason's skin still burns, as if his body is nothing more than a barely-contained furnace. He almost knows the words he's about to say before he says them.

"Flying." Jason intones dully, "That's what I miss. Not Heaven, really. But flying. Being able to soar above it all. I guess that's why they take your wings, knowing they're the one thing you can't bear to lose."

Dick shudders at the mere thought. He loves flying, almost more than he loves living. Losing his wings is about the worst nightmare he can imagine, except for losing someone he loves. 

"I know what you want, what you think I can do. But Dick, it ain't going to happen."

"You don't know that. Clark and Diana, they're reasonable, and you know Bruce loves you. If you'd just say sorry, if you'd repent, maybe they could reconsider." Dick prompts, hands stroking across the fine hair on Jason's forearms.

"It only works one way." Jason shakes his head. "And I've sinned a hell of a lot more since then. Worse, I'm not sorry for it." He shrugs. "I don't think even they could regrow someone's wings." He lets Dick lean in, and barely flinches as the elder being wraps his wings around them both, the same way he did when Jason was a foot shorter and so torn up over the consequences of right and wrong for the humans they were charged to shepherd. He draws in a deep breath, "I can't go up, but you could -"

"No." Dick shakes his head, cutting him off at once before Jason can even say the words. "I couldn't."

"No, I guess not." Jason turns his head, looking Dick in the eyes. "You're too good for that." One hand lifts to brush at the warm circle of his wings. He cracks a jagged edged smile, still wearing his envy plain on his face. "But hey, maybe you're right. Maybe the kid won't end the world tonight, then you and me could do this again sometime."

Dick smiles, putting his head down on Jason's shoulder. He sighs, toes curling at the possessive stroking of his feathers. Maybe Jason doesn't believe him now, but he will, Dick plans to make sure of it. Part of an angel's duty is to save lost souls."I know I'm right. Just have faith, Jason."

"Right." Jason breathes as they look up to the moon together, waiting for it to reach its zenith. "Faith."

 

*

Across the other side of town, as the clock strikes midnight, a boy born of two warring races looks between the opposing parents who raised him, draws in a breath...

Then makes a choice.

**Author's Note:**

> On [tumblr!](http://firefrightfic.tumblr.com/)


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